Foundation garment



Dec. 9, 1952 A. BAYER 2,620,473

FOUNDATION vGRMENT Filed July '10, 194s Patented Dec. 9, 1,952

FOUNDATION GARMENT Anna Bayer, North Haven, Conn., assignor to The Strouse, Adler Company, New Haven, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application July 10, 1948, Serial No. 38,022

2 Claims. l

This invention relates to foundation garments of the kind which have two leg portions to encircle the upper parts of the two legs of the wearer. Frequently garments of this kind are referred to as panty type foundation garments. By the term foundation garment, it will be understood of course that I refer to figure-con` fining garments, e. g. corsets, girdles, and in general all garments designed to confine and shape the figure. lates to panty type foundation garments having removable crotch-pieces.

The invention provides a removable crotchpiece, panty type foundation garment which not only is effective in confining the gure, but also is comfortable and substantially free of any tendency to show through any outer garments that may be worn over it.

Speaking generally, in a garment of the in-` vention the leg portions are disconnected from each other at the crotch, and a separate piece is provided, releasably fastened to the front and rear walls of the garment, to close the crotch opening left between the leg parts of the garment; preferably this crotch-piece is sufficiently wide to extend Ysidewise into both leg portions of the garment, and it is fastened to the garment through tabs to which it is releasably attached and which tabs themselves are permanently attached to the front and rear walls of the garment and present substantially straight edges to corresponding straight edges of the crotch-piece.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred form of my invention as applied to a panty girdle. Fig. 1 is a front view of the girdle, partly broken away to show the crotch-piece in place. Fig. 2 is a front View of the lower portion of the garment without the crotch-piece, broken away to show one of the tabs provided for attachment of the crotch-piece. Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line III-IH of Fig. l. Fig. 4.- shows the crotch-piece, drawn to a larger scale. Fig. 5 shows one of the crotch tabs, also drawn on an enlarged scale.

The garment of the drawing comprises principally four panels Ia, Ib, Ic and Id which are sewed to one another along longitudinal seams 2 to form a garment which ts snugly about the body from the waistband 3 to the leg portions Il. The latter are to encircle the tops of the wearers legs. The side panels Ib and Id may be formed of resilient materials; for example, they may have circumferential stretch as indicated by the arrows 5. Likewise the front and back panels Ia and Ic may be resilient if desired; for ex- More particularly the invention reample stretchable vertically as indicated by the arrows 5a. Also the front panel may be provided at its upper end with short stays 6 if desired. A slide fastener I at the upper end of one of the seams 2 permits the garment to be put on and taken off easily. The lower ends of the front and back body panels may be cut away to form upwardly extending peaked, or arched, crotch openings as it were (Figs. 1 and 2), and together with the side panels continue into and' thus form parts of the leg portions 4 as it were (Figs. 1, 2 and 3). Additional panels 8 then may be sewn at 9 and I0 to the generally arcuate edges of the lower end of the front and back panels to complete the leg portions of the garment and the encirclement of the upper parts of the wearers legs individually. Usually the two panels 8 are made rather long (i. e. in the vertical direction) so that the leg portions of the garment may have a firm grip on the legs as it were, to resist upward movement of the garment, as will be seen from the drawing. However at their upper edges I I, two leg panels 8 terminate short of each other, thus leaving the garment open directly at the crotch.

The foregoing illustrates the type of garment to which I regard my invention as particularly applicable, butmy invention is not limited either to this form of panel garment, or to garments made of separate panels. Speaking generally it is applicable to any form of open-crotch panty type of foundation garment.

In use the crotch opening is closed, Figs. l and 3, by a crotch-piece I2 removably attached to the garment by loosely dependent tabs permet--v nently attached to the front and rear walls of the garment; that is, tabs attached at one end to the garment body and having their other ends swinging free. The crotch-piece is attached to these free ends. Preferably a single tab I3 is used at the front of the garment and another at the back, each being secured to the garment substantially transversely of the garment, Fig. 2, the back tab being attached at a point substantially as high as the top of the leg portions. be quite or substantially alike. The free end of each tab I3, i. e. the end to which the crotchpiece is fastened, has a straight edge as shown at I4, Fig. 5. The opposite ends I5 of the tabs may be and usually are sewn to the garment body, and are attached near the edges of the peaks of the front and back crotch openings, Fig. 2 and 3, and in such a manner that all parts of the end edge I4 of each tab, if the tab should be permitted to hang downwardly free and unimpeded They may from its attachment to the garment, would be at substantially the same distance from the ground, asindicated in Fig. 2; i. e. each lower or free end edge I4 would lie in a substantially horizontal line, Fig. 2, which may either be straight or be curved somewhat due to vertical folds in the tab arising from the shaping of the body portion f thek garment. tabs may bev attached to the garment body by the same stitchings as attach the leg panels 8 to the body part of the garment and extensions of these stitchings above the panel edges I I and the edges. of these latter ends I of the tabs are curvedV somewhat, convexly, as indicated at. I5, Fig. 5, the straight edge I4 of the free end=of each tab being parallel to the chord of the arc of the convex opposite end I5 as shown in-Fig. 5,.so that inl use the tabs also will lie somewhat more smoothly than otherwise as indicated in Fig. 3. Preferably the tabs are made of a resilient material stretch'ablelengthwise, i. e; in the directionsindicated bythe arrow IE, Fig. 5; for example,

they may be-made-ofa-fabriccomposedof strands;

of; elasticrubber (natural or synthetic) and textile yarns interwoven crfknittedA with the rubber ina common manner. Thet'abs'are made suinciently wide (dimension indicated generally by I.'I-Fig. 5) to lap insider both panels of the leg portions when the garment is in use, Figs. 1 and 3f.

The crotch-piece I-Zf may be, andi preferably is, rectangular in shape asf shown iny Fig. 4. Customarily it is made of' aY soft,.easily laundered material. ts width (dimension. I3, Fig. 4) is preferably' suicient. to not only spani the space b'etweenzthe edges It ofthe leg portions ofthe garment whenlin use, butalso extends well down intobothrleg portions, Figs. 1 and' 3'. rEllis width and thekwidths ofthe free ends of the tabs (i. e. the lengths ofi the edges I4, Fig. 5') may be equal. The length. ofthe crotchfpiece (dimension la, Fig; 4) is suiicientto permit the crotch-piece to extend from one tab to the other without discomfort to the wearer, and usually somewhat loosely.

The two ends of the crotch-piece, and likewiseV the free ends of the tabs, at which the complementary releasable fastener elements are provided (buttons, button-holes, snap fasteners, etc'.), may be folded or otherwise reinforced as indicated at le; The sewing at 2t in'- Fig. 5 is merely stitching of folded edges'of' the tabs for finish. Preferably the crotch-piece is fastened to the tabs at the inner surfaces of the tabs (i. e. between the tabs and the wearers body), Fig. 3, and( snap fasteners 2| and Zia are used to releasably attach the crotch-piece to the tabs. Usually I place at least one fastener element 2 la so-far along tov/ard each side of each tab, Fig. 5,

that each` tab has at least one fastener elementr within each leg portion of the garment, Fig. 3. The crotch-piece having fastener elements ila cooperating with these particular fastener elements'Of-the tabs, this arrangement tends to hold the two sides of the crotch-piece within the two leg portions.

To this end theV It will be understood that my invention is not limited to the details of construction and operation described above except as appears hereafter in the claims.

I claim:

1. A panty-type foundation garment having a body portion, individual leg portions connected to saidv body portion to encircle the legs of the wearer, the leg portions being separate from each other directly at the crotch to leave the crotch o-pen, a tab secured to the front and transversely of the garment and having a free dependent end extending toward both leg portions, a tab secured to the back and substantially transversely ofthe garment at a point substantially as high as the top of the leg portions and having a free dependent end extending toward both leg portions and the edge by which at least one of said tabs is secured to the body portion of the garment being convex and the opposite edge of said tabV being straight and parallel to the chord of saisi convex edge, and; a.y crotch.-

piece of greater width than the;crotch1 opening' and extending into both leg portions, the' ends' of `the crotch-piece and said dependent ends. ofy

the tabs having cooperating releasable fasteningelements. 2. A panty-type found-ation` garmentl having a body portion, said body portionl having at its lower edge, an upwardly extending arched crotchopening at the front of the garment andi anl upwardly extending crotchv opening at the back of the garment, individualleg portionsv `connected to said body portion to encircle the legs of'` the wearer, aV tab securedl to the front and another tab secured to the bach orA the' garment, said tabs being secured tor-said body portion ad jacent the tops of the crotch-openings, and said tabs having releasable fastener elements, and a crotch-piece having ends provided with releasable fastener elements for releasably fastening the crotch piece to said tabs, andtheedge of the front tab by which the said front ta'b is se-` cured to said body portion of the garment being convex and the opposite edge of the said; tabbeing straight and parallel to the chord of the convex edge.

ANNA BAYER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the. file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

